Top 9 Best StreamYard Alternatives & Competitors (2024)

I’ve been recently focusing on taking my videos to a wider audience and guess what? They are all scattered in different social platforms. So I looked up for a tool that would essentially act as a one-stop solution to distribute my videos live on all the platforms where my audience delves in. 

And that’s when I came across Streamyard, an interestingly popular live streaming platform. But would it be right to just pick one option blindly?

So yes, I planned on creating a full-comparison document of all the platforms that would be useful for creators like me. And I compared Streamyard with 12 other platforms to see which one best matches my requirement. 

And, here’s the highlight of my review:

My best picks include:

• OnTheFly
• Riverside
• Restream
• Dacast
• OBS Studio

Here’s a table illustrating a full-on comparison of the features and functionalities of my favorite live streaming platforms:

Features And Functionalites of Live streaming Platform:

Features	Streamyard	OnTheFly	Riverside	Restream	Dacast	OBS Studio
Access Controls/Permissions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Audience Analytics	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Audience Engagement	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Customizable Branding	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Event Scheduling	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Live Streaming Production	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Moderation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Multiple Camera Feeds	Yes	Yes	Yes (up to 8)	Yes	Yes (up to 4)	Yes
Multistreaming	Yes (up to 8 destinations)	Yes	No	Yes (up to 30 destinations)	No (only simulcasting)	No
Performance Monitoring	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Real-time Broadcasting	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Session Recording	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Social Media Streaming	Yes (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.)	Yes	Yes (Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn, etc.)	Yes (Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn, etc.)	Yes (Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn, etc.)	No
Split/Multi-Screen Video	No	In Roadmap	No	No	No	Yes
Monetization Tools	No	In Roadmap	No	No	Yes (Paywall)	No

Now, it’s time that we devour more details of each platform so you can get a clear picture of which one suits you the best. 

First, A Quick Overview Of Streamyard

Streamyard is a live video streaming and recording  platform that typically works on browsers.  We can pretty much perform different streaming events like podcasts, guest interviews and multi-streaming.

But is Streamyard all that?

While the platform claims itself to be the easiest way to live stream, there are other features and services that must be carefully considered before arriving at a decision.

One primary factor is the Pricing:

Streamyard offers 3 different subscription tiers, including

• Free
• Basic – $20/month
• Professional – $39/month

What I like About Streamyard?

• The quality of the local recordings is fairly optimal.
• You get the flexibility of live streaming and uploading pre-recorded content.
• You can co-host with 10 more guests.
• No software download is required
• A plenty of audience engagement tools
• And more

What I Think, Can Be Improved By Streamyard?

• The free plan comes with a limitation: 2 hours of local recording per month.
• There could be more editing tools.
• The studio URLs are not reusable.
• You cannot access Streamyard in your mobile app.
• The quality of your streams can only be up to 1080p.
• And a few more.

But this data is not enough to pick the best streaming platform. So here is the much awaited full breakdown of the platforms.

9 Best Streamyard Alternatives You Must Check Out

In this section, I’ll walk you through 9 different streaming platforms that are leading the broadcasting industry. Join me, let’s find out which platform is the best Streamyard alternative. 

1. OnTheFly

The Best Streamyard Alternative For Live Streaming

If you are a content creator or a business that uses live streams to increase your audience engagement, OnTheFly will truly be a treat to you. This modern platform is packed with all the fantastic features you need to make your live streams epic. 

It’s super easy to use, so you’ll be up and running in no time, and fortunately you’ll need no expertise to use the features!

With OnTheFly, you can go live on your favorite platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or even Facebook, and share your passions with the world. But wait, there’s more! You get cool options to personalize your streams, from interesting overlays to exciting alerts, making your broadcasts professional than ever.

Beyond this, OnTheFly lets you record your streams in super high quality, making your videos look crisp and clean. Oh, and don’t worry about engaging with your audience—OnTheFly helps you stay connected with your fans and track your performance easily.

Which OnTheFly Features You Should Not Miss?

• Simulcasting
• Limitless Messaging
• Backdrops
• Control
• Interactions
• Archives
• Enhancements
• Branding

What Is The Cost Of Using OnTheFly?

• OnTheFly provides a monthly subscription plan, and for detailed pricing information, you can reach out to their team directly.

OnTheFly vs Streamyard: Which Is Better?

• When comparing OnTheFly and Streamyard’s prices, OnTheFly offers more budget-friendly plans, ensuring an excellent value for your investment.
• OnTheFly comes with powerful engagement tools that let you directly interact with your audience
• The user-friendly interface and intuitive workflows of OnTheFly make live streaming effortless
• Both OnTheFly and Streamyard allow you to have an unlimited number of viewers, which means you can reach as many people as you want with your videos.
• OnTheFly boasts modern and innovative streaming tools that make your streams look more professional.

2. Riverside

Step Up Your Streaming Game With Riverside

If you’d like to focus on the quality of your videos and witness super-amped editing capabilities, then Riverside is the one you’ll need. It beats all other leading platforms in the quality of recording. With Riverside, you can record your videos at 4K resolution, making HD streaming seemingly possible.

And you don’t want to worry about creating your video transcripts manually. Riverside has an AI editor that can download the transcript, edit and set them up in the video.

Which Riverside Features You Should Not Miss?

• High-quality video and audio streaming
• Support for multiple participants
• Studio-quality production features
• Automatic recording of live streams
• Live audience interaction tools

What Is The Cost Of Using Riverside?

Riverside offers four distinct pricing plans:

1. Free plan

2. Standard plan priced at $15 per month

3. Pro plan priced at $24 per month

4. Business plan with pricing available upon contacting the company.

Riverside vs Streamyard: Which Is Better?

• The max quality Streamyard can offer is 1080p but Riverside can offer a 4K resolution.
• Streamyard does not have a transcription tool as Riverside does.
• You can reuse the invite URLs in Riverside, but not in Streamyard.
• The pricing of Riverside is quite affordable when compared to Streamyard    
• There is no dedicated mobile app for Streamyard but Riverside has one.

3. LiveReacting

Step Up Your Streaming Game With Riverside

LiveReacting is an interactive live streaming platform that helps to add interactivity and engagement to your live streams. It has features like pre-recorded videos, countdowns, interactive games, polls, displaying comments, and custom branding options. You can multicast your stream to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, and custom RTMP outputs. The platform also offers 45+ pre-made templates for different needs. 

Which LiveReacting Features You Should Not Miss?

• Multistreaming to different platforms simultaneously
• Live Giveaway, Live Trivia, Live Crossword, and other similar nteractive features for live streaming.
• Stream scheduling
• Streaming to Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and custom RTMP support for professional setups.

What Is The Cost Of Using LiveReacting?

LiveReacting provides 5 different subscription plans, and 1 non-subscription plan. The TOP Plans in more details:

1. Free Trial  –  3 FREE streams per month (each stream up to 1 hour)

2. Pay As You Go (non-subscription plan)  – $3.99 per credit (1 credit – 4 hours stream)

3. Small  – $19.99 per month (includes 6 credits = 24 hours of streaming)

4. 24/7 Live Streaming –  $349 per month (live streaming for the whole month non-stop)

LiveReacting Vs Streamyard: Which Is Better?

• In both platforms, streaming in a 1080p resolution is only possible with an upgrade.
• LiveReacting, in contrast with StreamYard, offers interactive features that help to drive viewer engagement: Live Giveaway, Live Crossword, Live Trivia, Live Poll, etc.
• LiveReacting offers integrations with any other streaming software.

4. Restream

Go Beyond StreamYard With Modern Live Streams

Just as you imagine, Restream is loaded with streaming tools and features. And that may be the typical reason why 5 million users around the world choose the platform. 

Besides, their free plan lets you record videos with 5 other co-hosts or guests. The only downside of restream I feel is that it does not allow pre-recording.

Which Restream Features You Should Not Miss?

• Multistreaming to multiple platforms simultaneously
• Chat aggregation from different platforms
• Stream scheduling and planning
• Viewer analytics and engagement metrics
• Custom RTMP support for professional setups

What Is The Cost Of Using Restream?

Restream provides three subscription plans:

1. Basic – Free forever

2. Standard – $16 per month

3. Professional – $41 per month

Restream vs Streamyard: Which Is Better?

• In both platforms, achieving a 1080p quality is only possible when you subscribe to a pro plan.
• Again just like Streamyard, Restream lets you record your streams, but does not allow you to host pre-recorded content.
• Streamyard is a bit costlier than Restream
• Restream grants surplus integrations for you to enjoy third-party features.

5. OBS Studio

Stream Like a Pro With this Streamyard Alternative

Video editing can sometimes be tiring without efficient tools. And this is where OBS Studio outperforms other market leaders by providing tools to create scenes from multiple sources. 

You can make your scenes out of your images, browser windows, webcams and texts. The options do not end here.

Apart from this, OBS Studio also ensures that there are no noise grains when the clips are played, by implementing techs like noise gate and noise suppression.

So yes, you can delight your users with the best streaming experiences with this free to use platform.

Which OBS Studio Features You Should Not Miss?

• Open-source and free software
• High customization and control over streaming settings
• Support for various video and audio sources
• Scene transitions and overlays
• Real-time video encoding

What Is The Cost Of Using OBS Studio?

• Completely Free

OBS Studio vs Streamyard: Which Is Better?

• OBS Studio is an excellent choice for solo streamers whereas Streamyard is primarily built for streaming with multiple guests.
• Anyone can use OBS Studio for free, but for Streamyard you need to make a subscription.
• You can use OBS Studio only if you download it, whereas you can use Streamyard in-browser.
• Sometimes you might find the UI of OBS studio a bit outdated than Streamyard.

6. Crowdcast

The StreamYard Alternative for creating Interactive Live Experiences

Crowdcast is a platform that is simply built with your streaming needs in mind. You can both engage your users and monetize their interaction effortlessly. This platform has been hailed for its ease of use, customization options and interactiveness.

This can be an interestingly feature-rich platform if you’d like to build a community of loyal users around your streaming business.

Which Crowdcast Features You Should Not Miss?

• Interactive webinars and live events
• Q&A, polls, and chat for audience engagement
• Integrations with marketing and CRM tools
• Analytics and tracking of participant behavior
• Ticketed events and payment integration

What Is The Cost Of Using Crowdcast?

Crowdcast offers three plans:

1. Lite plan for $49 per month

2. Pro plan for $89 per month

3. Business plan for $195 per month

Crowdcast vs Streamyard: Which Is Better?

• Crowdcast is pricey when compared to Streamyard
• Unlike Streamyard, Crowdcast does not offer a free plan
• There are streaming restrictions which may sometimes annoy streamers
• Only one host is allowed in the basic plans, and if you need to add multiple hosts, you may need to upgrade to their business plan.

7. Panopto

Your Reliable StreamYard Alternative for Enterprise Needs

Educators assemble! Panopto is primarily designed to serve educational purposes with LMS systems and video conferencing tools. It’s a secure platform that you can use to stream videos to your students during remote learning sessions.

You can use Panopto to store and watch video files for both instructors and students. To begin, you need to download the Panopto software for creating, managing and sharing videos within the enterprise/ university setting.

Which Panopto Features You Should Not Miss?

• Lecture capture and live streaming for educational institutions
• Video content management system
• In-video quizzing and interactive features
• Video search and indexing
• Integration with learning management systems (LMS)

What Is The Cost Of Using Panopto?

For detailed pricing information, you need to contact Panopto directly.

Panopto vs Streamyard: Which Is Better?

• The primary difference between Streamyard and Panapto is that Streamyard is browser-based and Panopto is app-based. You need to download their app to use their streaming platform.
• Panopto is suitable for enterprises while Streamyard caters to different user categories.

8. Melon

The All-in-One StreamYard Alternative

Melon is another web-based live streaming Studio that lets you broadcast your videos to popular sites like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitch. It’s super easy! 

And guess what? You can even have talk shows and invite your friends to join you!

Melon is designed to make things simple for you. You don’t need any fancy equipment or complicated software. All you need is your computer and an internet connection. 

Plus, it’s really fast because it does most of the work in the cloud, not on your computer.

Which Melon Features You Should Not Miss?

• Real-time video and screen sharing
• Interactive features like polls and Q&A
• Audience engagement analytics
• Custom branding and white-labeling
• Easy setup and user-friendly interface

What Is The Cost Of Using Melon?

Melon provides three distinct pricing plans:

1. Free plan with streaming limits

2. Standard plan priced at $9 per month

3. Pro plan priced at $17 per month

Melon vs Streamyard: Which Is Better?

• There are limitations in the number of destinations you want to publish your video on. But as you upgrade you get access to a wide range of social platforms.
• Just like limitations in the publishing platforms, Melon also limits the storage and recording hours.
• Melon keeps your streaming within budget. But the Streamyard is expensive.

9. Streamlabs

The StreamYard Alternative with Endless Possibilities

Streamlabs is a software that you can get for free, and it’s like an all-in-one package for live streaming. It’s super popular among content creators like gamers, vloggers, and other internet enthusiasts.

With Streamlabs, you can broadcast your live videos to platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Trovo. It’s like having your own virtual TV studio right on your computer! But that’s not all –  Streamlabs is cloud-based, which means most of the heavy work is done online, not on your computer. So, you get smoother streaming without slowing down your computer’s performance.

It’s not just limited to your computer, there’s a mobile app too!

Which Streamlabs Features You Should Not Miss?

• Integration with popular streaming platforms (Twitch, YouTube, etc.)
• Live chat and activity feed overlays
• Alerts and notifications for donations and followers
• Customizable widgets for on-screen display
• Integration with OBS Studio for advanced streaming setups

What Is The Cost Of Using Streamlabs?

• Completely Free

Which Is Better: Streamlabs vs Streamyard?

• Customize Streamlabs as much as you want, but Streamyard has some restrictions   
• You can use Streamlabs for completely free of cost
• The recording capabilities are not as well equipped as Streamyard

Steps To Select The Choose The Right Streamyard Alternative

We’ve checked all of the top providers in detail, but I must agree that picking the perfect StreamYard alternative can feel overwhelming, but fear not! I’ve created a straightforward guide to help you out on this:

Step 1: Check if the platform  is budget-friendly to you

Start by looking at the cost of each platform. Be cautious about different subscription levels because some cool features might need an upgrade.

Step 2: Think how you’ll use it

Consider how often you’ll livestream and how well your budget will support you. If you don’t stream a lot or want to save money, this is important to think about.

Step 3: Explore the cool extras

Look into all the fancy stuff each platform offers. The more awesome features, the better! Think about things like high-quality video recording and direct interaction with your audience.

Step 4: Look for top-notch recording

Recording quality matters! Look for platforms that offer the best video quality, like 4k if possible.

Step 5: Keep it simple

You deserve a platform that’s easy to use. Search for one with features that make recording fun and a modern, simple interface.

I believe this is more than enough to find the perfect alternative to StreamYard in no time. So get started with your streaming soon!

OnTheFly: The Best Streamyard Alternative For Live Streaming

So in my opinion, I’d finally go for OnTheFly!

Here are my top reasons why I chose OnTheFly over Streamyard

1. Live Streaming Is Easy: OnTheFly is super user-friendly, making live streaming a breeze for content creators like you and me.
2. Customization: You can get creative with cool graphics, funky overlays, and captivating backgrounds that can personalize your streams.
3. Collab with Friends: You can invite over 4 guests to join your streams, creating exciting collaborations and making epic discussions in real-time.
4. Real-time Interaction: You can easily engage your audience through live chat, turning your stream into a fun virtual hangout.
5. Level Up Your Streams: Be it any use case, vlogging, or music, OnTheFly helps you elevate your live streams!

It truly helps you deliver a hassle-free streaming experience to your users, driving engagement than you could imagine. So I’d recommend you to go for it. It’s all worth it!

Concluding Note

So that’s it, 

We’ve come to the end of our discussion. As much as streaming is fun, it is a responsible game to be on. So, I’d say it is essential to thoroughly scrutinize every element of the platforms before making your big decision.

And I believe that my article will have helped you already.

If you’d like me to compare such platforms, what would you recommend me next? Post it in the comment below. 

Meet you with yet another interesting article!